


Forest Green

by LittleRose13



Series: Shipmas 2018 [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: M/M, Shipmas 2018, Waitrose, Weasley Jumpers, time lapse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 07:31:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16849792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRose13/pseuds/LittleRose13
Summary: He was wearing Albus’ jumper. His jumper, something he’d worn countless times and knew inside out, was now on Scorpius’ body. The sleeves his own hands had emerged from now housed Scorpius’ slender fingers, the soft wool which had encased his shoulders so many times now hung loosely over Scorpius’ wiry frame.Everyone knows the best part about Christmas in the Weasley family is a Grandma Molly Christmas jumper. It’s a tradition Albus has many memories of, most of which he shares with Scorpius.





	Forest Green

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Mrs Weasley’s Christmas jumpers

Albus couldn’t remember the very first time he’d received one of Grandma Molly’s Christmas jumpers, but they’d been a consistent part of his Christmases for as long as he could remember. Being handed a squashy parcel wrapped in colourful paper with a ribbon tied around it, carefully removing just a corner to see what colour it was this year, and then pulling the whole thing out and shrugging it on straight away. Everyone wore them all afternoon;  _ nobody  _ didn’t wear a Grandma Molly jumper. 

At some point, he had to stand next to James and Lily in front of the Christmas tree and say  _ kneazles  _ and do a big smile while all the grown ups took photos. Albus didn’t mind that much, he liked smiling and he liked James and Lily and he liked the Christmas tree. Even when he got a little bit older and a touch shyer, he was still happy to smile for a photo. 

By the time he left for Hogwarts, Albus still had two Christmas jumpers he fitted into (Grandma Molly always made them a little big on purpose), one was a deep navy blue and the other indigo. James had exactly the same ones. 

His first Christmas home from Hogwarts was one he would remember as loud, overwhelming and really just a bit too much. He missed the quiet and unassuming company of his best friend, Scorpius, the way they could just  _ exist  _ with no expectations, nobody watching and waiting for him to react to everything in some specific and expected way. Instead, his visit to The Burrow was filled with questions of  _ how’s slytherin, Al?  _ from all his uncles and  _ is it true you can see the Giant Squid from inside the common room?  _ from Hugo and  _ green looks lovely with your eyes  _ from his grandma. 

The moment came to open Christmas jumpers and, as usual, Albus was handed a squashy package. He was one of the last to receive a jumper, meaning James had already torn the paper off his and shoved it on. It was burgundy, which meant Albus’ would be too; Grandma Molly always made theirs matching, Albus wasn’t sure why. He sighed and tore the corner of the parcel open, waiting for the deep red jumper to fall out. 

Instead, the jumper inside was forest green. Albus stared at it in shock. Green? 

Grandma Molly was watching him fondly. “Do you like it, Albus? I thought green would be good this year, to match your house, and it’ll look  _ lovely  _ with your eyes.”

“Thank you, Grandma,” he said politely, shoving the jumper over his head and hiding his face in the neckline for longer than was necessary. 

Was this how it would always be now? Albus couldn’t exist outside of being in the green house, he couldn’t match with James anymore now he was a Slytherin? He couldn’t muster a smile for the photo, James’ red jumper-clad arm strewn around his own reluctant, green shoulders. 

Albus suspected that his mum had said something to Grandma, because she didn’t knit him anything green again. His jumpers were always very neutral muted shades after that, with a letter A stitched on somewhere. Grandma Molly seemed to expect Albus to grow more than he did each year though, meaning by fifth year, he could still fit into his Christmas jumpers from the last three years. School still wasn’t Albus’ favourite place, but it was getting better, and snuggling into the sleeves of an oversized, Grandma Molly jumper never got old. 

That was until Albus made the grave mistake of lending one of his jumpers to Scorpius. Everything had been going well for him in fifth year so far, he’d made the Quidditch team as Keeper, he’d made friends with a few more people, sometimes he actually enjoyed his lessons, especially Potions. But he vastly underestimated how he would react to seeing Scorpius in one of his precious jumpers. 

It was the night before Scorpius’ sixteenth birthday, and at exactly midnight, Albus woke him up to surprise him with his birthday present. He’d bought him a beautifully made, emerald green telescope he knew his best friend would love, and he planned to give it to him on the Astronomy tower so that Scorpius could use it straight away. James had leant him the invisibility cloak, it was all going to be perfect. 

Without thinking anything of it, he’d thrown a dove grey jumper in Scorpius’ direction as they’d left the dorm. He was so focused on surprising his best friend that it didn’t really occur to him that they didn’t tend to share clothes usually. And then in the light of the common room, he’d looked up at Scorpius and almost stopped dead. 

He was wearing Albus’ jumper. His jumper, something he’d worn countless times and knew inside out, was now on Scorpius’ body. The sleeves his own hands had emerged from now housed Scorpius’ slender fingers, the soft wool which had encased his shoulders so many times now hung loosely over Scorpius’ wiry frame. 

Why was the sight of Scorpius in his jumper making him feel so strange? 

“Are you okay, Al?” Scorpius questioned uncertainly and he realised he’d been silent for a bit too long. 

“Yeah, just, er, thinking,” Albus mumbled, going to remove the invisibility cloak from his backpack. 

He did a lot of  _ thinking  _ that night, mainly in the dark refuge of his bed after Scorpius had gone to sleep. 

By the following Christmas, Albus was far more used to seeing Scorpius in his clothes from time to time, and it didn’t come as much of a surprise when his grandma had a neatly wrapped gift for Scorpius too. 

“Open it!” Albus urged his boyfriend in excitement. 

“Not until I’ve guessed what it is,” Scorpius protested, holding the present up to his ear and shaking it. 

“Come on, Scor, you know what it is!” Albus rolled his eyes then realised his grandma was watching him, her own eyes twinkling. 

“Your New Year’s resolution should be to be more patient,” Scorpius chuckled, easing the corner of the paper away from the wrapped present. 

He took out the jumper, made from a pale grey wool, and held it out in front of him. Albus saw a small, silvery S emblazoned over the top corner and he bit back a laugh. She’d made them matching jumpers! Not identical, Albus’ was dark grey, almost charcoal, but the letter placement was the same and his A was stitched in that silvery wool too. 

“It’s beautiful, thank you, Mrs Weasley.” Scorpius hugged her and she patted his back fondly. 

“You’re very welcome, my dear. You’re officially part of the family now.” She patted his cheek and bustled away to check on the stew. 

Scorpius turned very slowly to Albus, his eyes shining. “Did she mean that?” 

“Mean what?” Albus lightly rested his hands on Scorpius’ hips.

“I’m… part of the family?” 

“Of course, you’re my boyfriend, aren’t you?” Albus kissed him and Scorpius looked very pleased. “We even have matching jumpers now.”

Scorpius chuckled and stuffed his head into the jumper. “I suppose we do,” he said, threading his arms through the sleeves. “Come on then, put yours on.” 

Albus did, tugging it over his head and pushing his arms into the sleeves. Scorpius ran his hands up Albus’ arms and smiled. 

“You look great,” he whispered. “All soft and cuddly.

Albus reached up to brush Scorpius’ hair from his eyes and kissed him lightly on the corner of the mouth. 

“Get a room!” James’ loud voice broke the moment as he came barrelling into the kitchen, skidding to a halt and ruffling Scorpius’ hair enthusiastically. 

Albus heavily rolled his eyes and took Scorpius’ hand in his. “This is a room, which you just came barging into.”

James was looking Scorpius up and down. “Nice jumper, Scorp. Didn’t realise you two had got married.” 

Scorpius turned as red as a Quaffle and pulled the sleeves of his jumper down, avoiding Albus’ eye. 

“What are you on about, James?” Albus could handle James’ teasing but Scorpius was always a bit more affected by it. 

“I didn’t realise Grandma made jumpers for boyfriends and girlfriends. She’s never made one for any of mine.” James shrugged. 

Albus privately thought that their grandma would have run out of wool by now if that was the case. “You’ve never brought anyone home for Christmas,” he said instead. 

“True,” James shrugged. “Well, you two look adorable. Mum’s going to lose it when she sees you.” 

Albus’ mum  _ did  _ lose it and insisted on taking about twelve different photos of Albus and Scorpius side by side in their almost-matching jumpers, arms around each other. Despite rolling his eyes and complaining, Albus was secretly grateful and he put one of the pictures in a frame beside his bed for when he was home and Scorpius wasn’t there. 

The framed photo was still there the following Christmas holidays and Scorpius had seemed incredibly touched when he’d come to stay on Boxing Day and spotted it sitting beside the flowery raven statue Lily had made for Albus when he’d first cast his patronus. It made Albus inordinately happy to glance at it just before he went to sleep. 

That evening, Scorpius had picked the photo up, watched the Albus in the photo rest his head on Scorpius’ shoulder and laugh, then taken the real Albus in his arms and kissed him thoroughly, toppling both of them onto Albus’ bed. Scorpius had recently received his second ever Grandma Molly Christmas Jumper, but it hadn’t taken long for both of them to wriggle out of the jumpers and help each other out of their jeans. 

“Kiss me again,” Albus breathed, looking straight into Scorpius’ bright eyes. He was holding himself over Albus and balancing on his forearms but Albus welcomed the moment he’d relax against him again. 

Scorpius grinned and obliged, pressing his bare torso against Albus’ and kissing him deeply. Being intimate in any way with Scorpius was always blissful, but after a whole day of Albus’ incessantly  _ present  _ family, it was nice to have the house to themselves. The Potters shouldn’t be back for at least another hour, plenty of time to enjoy being alone with his boyfriend.

“Wake up, sleepyheads!” A sharp rap on the bedroom door broke the moment. “We brought pizza home.”

“Shit, it’s Lily,” Albus sighed as Scorpius rolled off of him and stared up at the ceiling. 

“Hurry up before we eat it all!” Lily called after a moment and her footsteps gradually got quieter.

“Quick, get dressed!” Albus scrambled to get up and started scanning the floor for his trousers. 

“What? Why?” Scorpius pushed his messed up hair from his eyes. “I think Lily was joking about eating all the pizza.”

Albus shook the pair of trousers in his hand and realised they were Scorpius’. “No, not that.” He threw the trousers roughly at Scorpius’ chest. “Put those on, quick.” 

“Okay.” Scorpius frowned but did what he said, wriggling into his trousers whilst Albus searched in the dark for his own. “What’s the rush?”

“Lily has boundaries, Lily knows how to knock, Lily knows not to just burst straight into my bedroom without warning,” Albus spoke quickly, pulling his trousers on. He threw Scorpius’ jumper his way, throwing his own quickly over his bare chest. 

“I’m not following.” Scorpius put the jumper on. 

“Can you think of a member of my family who  _ doesn’t  _ have those boundaries and would take great pleasure in-“

“Evening, lovebirds!” The door flew open and a beam of bright light from the landing filled Albus’ previously atmospherically lit bedroom. Albus jumped up from the bed like he’d been burnt, grabbing a random comic from his desk and flicking through it. 

“Oh, hi, James,” he said in the most nonchalant way possible. Nothing would give James more satisfaction than knowing he’d interrupted them. 

Scorpius just looked completely perplexed, sitting up in the bed with the duvet pooled around him. 

“Not interrupting, am I?” James smirked. 

“No, of course not,” Albus shrugged

James stared him down. “Really? You weren’t  _ in the middle  _ of anything?” 

“We were napping, before, now we are awake,” Scorpius said in the most forced and awkward voice ever. “Lily said something about pizza.” 

“ _ Just  _ napping?”

“Yes,” Albus said defiantly. 

“Oh right, explain to me then, why you’re wearing each other’s jumpers?” 

Albus snapped his gaze to Scorpius and saw with a jolt that Scorpius had a large letter A emblazoned across his chest. One look down showed Albus he was sporting a yellow S. 

“Bye, Salbus and Arpius.” James chuckled, closing the door and leaving with an audible laugh. 

“Merlin, I can’t wait to move out,” Albus muttered, sitting on the bed with a resigned sigh.

When Albus and Scorpius did eventually get a place of their own, it didn’t take long for their collection of knitted jumpers to merge into one so effectively that neither of them could even remember who some of them had originally belonged to. There were always the Grandma Molly monogrammed Christmas ones, but they were now nestled amongst many other soft wool jumpers, some purchased for them by Draco and some they’d chosen themselves. Jumpers were about the only overlap in Albus and Scorpius’ wardrobe choices. 

Albus rolled up the sleeves of the dark grey jumper he’d chosen that morning, using a knife to neatly chop a red onion for Scorpius’ favourite pasta sauce. 

“Do we have any olive oil left?” he called out over the sound of the chopping, thinking about the next step already. 

There was no response from Scorpius, who was in the living room revising for his next round of Healing exams. Albus wasn’t entirely sure why he was asking Scorpius anyway, as he himself was the one who liked to do most of the cooking and would therefore know about the status of the olive oil. 

With the onion chopped, Albus went to summon the olive oil himself, discovering that they did have a small amount left. “Never mind, got it!” Albus reassured his boyfriend.

Scorpius still didn’t reply but Albus assumed he was concentrating. When he still hadn’t heard a peep from him, he left the pasta sauce simmering on the stove and went to investigate. The sight which met him in the living room made him stop in the doorway, wooden spoon in hand and a soft gasp emitting from his lips.

“Oh, Scor,” he whispered under his breath.

Scorpius was sat cross legged on the floor behind the coffee table which was laden with textbooks and notes. Two tea mugs were interspersed with the study materials as well as a sizeable bag of Pepper Imps, despite Albus’ reminders that he needed to eat real food. Scorpius himself had fallen asleep, his head pillowed against his discarded Christmas jumper and one arm strewn out across the table, the other lolling at his side. 

He was going to get a painful stiff neck in that position. Albus crossed the room, placed the wooden spoon down away from Scorpius’ notes and very gently shook him awake. “Scorpius, wake up, love.” 

Scorpius was so deeply asleep he didn’t move, and for a second Albus worried something was wrong. But then his eyes fluttered half open and he peered blearily at Albus. 

“Lie down,” Albus suggested, helping Scorpius to his feet and guiding him past the Christmas tree over to the sofa, hoping he was still sleepy enough to give in and rest, and not-

“No, I need to… revise more,” Scorpius insisted around a massive yawn. 

“You need to rest. Listen to your body, Scor. It’s telling you to stop.” He watched Scorpius sit down on the sofa, looking spaced out. 

“Can’t stop,” he said in a monotone before shivering violently. 

“Rest, I’ll keep dinner warm for you.” Albus retrieved his jumper from the coffee table and put it over Scorpius’ head, holding it in place while Scorpius nodded and threaded his arms through the sleeves. The small white S on the front was lopsided and Albus straightened the loose shoulders out; Albus knew they were only loose because he had been the last one to wear the jumper. 

“Wake me up in an hour,” Scorpius said weakly, lying back against the sofa cushions and falling back asleep almost instantly.

Albus sighed and draped a tartan blanket over his still frame. He smoothed Scorpius’ hair back from his closed eyes, kissed his forehead and used his wand to dim the living room lights so the fairies on the tree glowed brightly in comparison. Without thinking, Albus laced his fingers with Scorpius’, the sleeves of their jumpers brushing together and he stayed there for a while, just gazing in admiration at his boyfriend before remembering he’d left the pasta sauce simmering and quickly jumping up. 

It was one of Albus’ favourite Christmas memories to bring up each year, the time Scorpius fell asleep on the coffee table and Albus almost burned down the kitchen when the sauce bubbled over and caught fire. In fact, now Albus thought about it, it had probably been on this very night all those years ago, so close to Christmas Day. He absent-mindedly fiddled with his wedding ring, as he often found himself doing when he reminisced on the earlier days of his and Scorpius’ relationship. 

An idea formed in Albus’ mind. Tonight would be their last night as just the two of them before the Christmas madness began. Between staying with Albus’ huge family, spending time with Scorpius’ dad, and babysitting the Lupin twins so Teddy and Vic could wrap their Christmas presents, alone time with his husband would be scarce. They should really make the most and there was little Albus loved more than surprising his husband with things which made him happy. 

Albus straightened the potion ingredient record he’d been working on and pushed his glasses up on top of his head, filing the record away for another day. He checked his watch; Scorpius wouldn’t be back from work for at least an hour and a half. Albus grinned and pulled a jumper over his head, forgetting his glasses were still up there and knocking them off in the process. He swore and picked them up, stuffing them haphazardly into his pocket. 

He glanced down at his chest only to see a large letter S staring back at him. He’d not even realised it was Scorpius’ jumper, that must have been why it smelled so good. A mix of the expensive aftershave Scorpius favoured and his own unique scent. Albus breathed in deeply and smiled to himself; James would laugh himself silly at Albus if he could see him now. But James wasn’t here and Albus was too in love to care anyway. 

Not long later, bundled in his favourite black coat and the scarf Scorpius had bought him for his birthday last year, Albus arrived at the closest muggle supermarket, which happened to be Waitrose. They bought most of their groceries from the weekly farmers market or other shops in Diagon Alley, but occasionally they braved muggle money and shopped at the supermarket.

There was a very good reason Albus was at Waitrose and it had everything to do with their wine selection. Most helpfully, he could buy Scorpius’ favourite wine without having to take a portkey to France itself or see if Draco had a spare bottle of Sancerre lying around. Scorpius’ dad had a wine cellar in his house and took frequent trips to the continent to fill it with unusual finds, but Scorpius was a creature of habit and had one favourite he liked to drink. 

Albus found it quickly; the shop had never moved it, in fact he had suspicions that he was one of the only customers to even buy it. He picked up two bottles, then put one back. Albus wasn’t a huge fan of this wine and his husband was a lightweight at the best of times. Then he clicked his tongue and ended up putting two in his trolley, Scorpius could take one to The Burrow on Christmas Day. James would inevitably tease him for drinking a posh wine and he’d try to read the label as  _ Sankeree _ in a terrible French accent, but Albus suspected Scorpius would quite like that. 

Albus pushed his trolley around the aisles of Waitrose, the two wine bottles rolling around as he did. Scorpius was under the impression they were going to use up leftovers from the fridge for dinner that night but Albus had other ideas. He picked up fresh tagliatelle and the ingredients for homemade pesto, which was one of Scorpius’ favourites. He would always sing that Albus’ pesto was  _ the besto _ and kiss him on the cheek. 

Halfway down the chilled dessert aisle, someone in a bobble hat was standing in front of the cheesecakes Albus needed to access. They were holding their shopping basket out at an angle, blocking the way and Albus impatiently pretended to browse the profiteroles until they moved on. Scorpius did like profiteroles, maybe he should get those instead anyway. He was just going to add some to his trolley when the person moved on from the cheesecakes and straight towards Albus and-

“Scor?” 

“Albus! Hi!” 

He knew he’d recognised that bobble hat from somewhere. Scorpius was pink in the face and he tried to conceal the basket behind his back, while Albus slid his trolley out of sight and stood in front of it.

“What, er,” Scorpius cleared his throat, “what are you doing here?” 

“Shopping,” Albus said stiffly. “What are  _ you  _ doing here? Why aren’t you at work?” 

“Finished early, I wanted to…” he sighed and removed the basket from behind his back. “I was going to surprise you with dinner.” 

Albus felt his heart melt when he peered into the contents of Scorpius’ basket: Heston Blumenthal dauphinoise potatoes, Waitrose ‘Essential’ asparagus tips, lapsang souchon smoked salmon, something called a  _ cabbage and bacon medley,  _ butterflied king prawns and other things Albus couldn’t see. In short, it was a basket full of Albus’ favourites; Scorpius didn’t even like seafood. 

Biting back a laugh, Albus pushed his own trolley into view. “So was I.”

Scorpius looked from his own basket to Albus’ trolley and burst out laughing, dropping the basket into the trolley and surprising Albus by sweeping him into a hug. “I love you, and I love us.” 

“Love you too,” Albus snaked his arms around Scorpius’ waist, not caring that they were in the middle of the chilled desserts aisle. 

Scorpius pulled away and kissed Albus very briefly on the forehead then he glanced down at Albus’ torso. “Is that my jumper?”

Without missing a beat, Albus’ eyes flicked upwards. “Is that my hat?” 

Even when they’d been married for years, the novelty of receiving a Grandma Molly Christmas jumper never wore off and Scorpius was just as thrilled to open his as Albus’ husband as he had been when he was seventeen and they’d spent their first Christmas together as boyfriends. He put it on straight away, looking all cosy and soft in the pale cream wool, while Albus opened his own (forest green this year). 

“Thanks, Grandma,” Albus got up to hug her, his freshly opened Christmas jumper tucked under one arm. “It’s lovely. My favourite colour.” 

She smiled with crinkly eyes and stroked the sleeve of the green jumper, turning in her chair towards the Christmas tree. “Pass me that present there, Hugo.” 

Hugo looked up from his spot practically under the Christmas tree and he reached for the present Molly indicated, handing it over. She placed it into Albus’ hands.

“Another present?” Albus held it uncertainly. “For me?” 

“Albus gets another present?” Lily echoed with a hint of childish resentment. 

“For you and Scorpius, open it together.” Grandma Molly smiled and her eyes twinkled. Albus’ mum had a knowing look in her eyes. 

“Okay,” Albus took his seat again next to Scorpius, who looked thrilled at the prospect of another surprise present. His husband faced most things with a childlike joy that Albus would never ever tire of experiencing. 

“What could it be?” he thought out loud, turning the present over in his hands. It was square and flat with a bow on top. Scorpius removed the bow and attached it to the top of Albus’ head without hesitation, smiling crookedly as Albus rolled his eyes. 

They eased the paper back together and out fell a small box. Albus gave his grandma a curious look but she just smiled and gestured for them to open it. The lid came off easily and as soon as Albus noticed what was inside, he gasped and immediately handed it over to Scorpius. 

“Oh!” Scorpius squeaked and his eyes welled up with tears as he stared down at the contents of the box then looked up between Grandma Molly and Albus. 

“I thought it was good to be ready for next year,” Grandma Molly reached up and stroked Albus’ hair fondly. 

“It’s beautiful, thank you, Mrs Weasley,” Scorpius said tearfully, seeking Albus’ hand with his own and squeezing it hard. 

“Well come on,” Hugo interrupted impatiently, “show the rest of us!” 

Albus reached into the box and removed what was inside, holding it up so it was visible to everyone. “It’s perfect, it’s lovely.”

There was a chorus of cooing as everyone registered what the present was. Albus realised that he too felt like crying, which was silly because it was just a Christmas present, but ever since the events of the last few months, he found his emotions were so much closer to the surface. He exchanged proud looks with Scorpius and laid the present carefully across their laps.

A tiny, knitted jumper, small enough to fit a baby, crafted with multiple pastel shades woven together in a striped pattern, with little polka dots and stars. It seemed impossibly small, lying there between him and his husband. Albus smoothed it out with his hand and Scorpius straightened the sleeve lovingly. 

“When’s she done cooking again?” Rose said bluntly.

Scorpius threw Albus a quick look which he interpreted to mean  _ just a reminder, Rose is not allowed to babysit unsupervised  _ and he smiled at her. “We’re only at twenty-one weeks, not for a while.” 

“Now of course, I don’t know Baby’s name yet, for the initial,” Grandma Molly smiled and Hugo sat up a bit straighter. 

“Mum,” Ginny reprimanded quietly. 

Ever since they’d let it slip that they’d picked out a name for their daughter, nobody had been able to stop asking what it was, despite Albus and Scorpius’ insistence that they wanted to keep it a secret. They didn’t want anyone butting in and trying to ‘help’ them choose, or even worse make them have any doubts about the name they’d picked. It had taken such a long time to settle on a name they both really loved and they didn’t want to spoil it. The twinkle in Grandma Molly’s eye made Albus sure she had hoped this would be their chance to find out.

“Nice try, Grandma,” Albus chuckled. “We can add one when she’s born.”

Hugo groaned. “Is it a long name? Like, more than three syllables?” 

“Not saying.” Albus mimed zipping his lips shut. 

“I can’t take you seriously with that on your head, Al,” Rose laughed and Albus reached up to remove the bow Scorpius had attached to his hair, throwing it directly at Rose. She caught it and grinned. “It’s a hint, you’re going to name her  _ Bow.”  _

“ _ Beau,” _ Scorpius echoed in a perfect French accent. “But she’s a girl, so it would have to be  _ Belle.” _

“Is that it?” Hugo continued seriously. “What could  _ Belle  _ be short for? Annabelle? Isabelle? Bluebell?”

“Can confirm we aren’t going to name her  _ Bluebell,” _ Albus snorted. 

“Bluebell is lovely,” Lily said wistfully. “Can’t go wrong with a flower name.” 

Scorpius was looking thoughtful. Albus nudged him with a questioning raise of his eyebrows. “Nothing, it’s just…  _ Isabelle’s  _ a nice name,” he commented innocently. “Isabelle Astoria Potter-Malfoy.”

Hugo looked thrilled. “Did I just guess it? Did I?” 

“What? Scor! We finally settled on-“ Albus quickly stopped himself before he said their chosen name. “You know,  _ that  _ name. You can’t bring up other options now.” 

“I know, I know, I wasn’t meaning… never mind.”

Albus sighed and tucked a bit of Scorpius’ hair behind his ear. “This is why we aren’t telling, it took us so long to find a name we both loved.” 

“If it took you as long as it did to choose a surrogate in the first place then I’m not surprised.” Rose rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, can’t believe we were so  _ selective  _ about who was going to  _ literally carry our child _ ,” Albus retorted. 

“Is it another flower name?” Hugo persisted. “Violet? Iris? Chrysanthemum?” 

“Thank you very much for the jumper, Mrs Weasley,” Scorpius said pointedly, his hand coming to rest on the top of Albus’ leg. “It won’t be long before she’s here and wearing it.” 

Grandma Molly patted Scorpius’ cheek clumsily and straightened the apron she always ended up wearing on Christmas Day. “Who wants to help me with the mince pies?” 

Albus jumped at the chance to escape Hugo’s incessant questioning, taking Scorpius’ hand and offering both of their help in the kitchen. Grandma Molly set them to work rolling out pastry together and she leaned between them to retrieve a jar of icing sugar. 

“And of course, next year, both your jumpers will be in that same matching pattern. You can take the loveliest family photographs in front of the Christmas tree.” 

Albus’ relationship with taking family photographs in matching Christmas jumpers had changed many times over his life. There had been several years in which the concept had been his idea of hell. But now, with the man he was lucky enough to call his husband by his side, their baby daughter growing every day, and the idea of this being his  _ family,  _ Albus couldn’t imagine anything better. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Sort of too fluffy to function, this one, I hope you enjoyed it!  
> Shoutout to the discord crew for inspiring the Waitrose part :) (bearded Albus is still to come!)   
> Tumblr: @littlerose13writes (I promise ample female presenting nipples my friends)   
> ❤️❤️❤️


End file.
